Crete Truck Owner Keeps Cops At Bay

Refusal To Cooperate Hinders Hit-run Probe

Investigators working intensely to identify the driver who killed three young girls in Crete last week said their efforts were being hampered by the refusal of the owner of the vehicle involved in the hit-and-run case to cooperate.

While stopping short of describing the owner, Richard Devon as a suspect, Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow said on Tuesday:

"We are seriously investigating any potential involvement he has that flows from his ownership of the vehicle."

Devon has not told police where he was the night of the accident, and Glasgow said police have reached an impasse for now in their attempts to question him further.

"He has invoked his right to an attorney and to remain silent," Glasgow said. "It would be unlawful to attempt to question him now. We are at the point where we will get no help from Mr. Devon."

Devon, 42, is a patient at Silver Cross Hospital in Joliet for treatment of an undisclosed ailment, and he is under police surveillance. He lives on the same road where 12-year-olds Cari Sanaghan, Sheena Acres and Courtney Lauer were killed during a late-night walk near the Sanaghan home on May 26.

Ownership of the truck that police believe hit the victims in itself would not be enough for prosecutors to establish the idenity of the driver in a trial, according to Glasgow.

"There needs to be a way to identify him as the driver of the vehicle," he said.

Glasgow said investigators were still sorting out other evidence Tuesday, including statements from others questioned in the probe who could be taken before a grand jury as early as Wednesday to "lock in" their testimony so they could not change their stories later.

Other experts said that, short of a confession, the best hope in solving the case is to find evidence of witnesses placing a suspect at the crime scene or someone who heard a suspect subsequently talk about the incident.

"The problem is that you can't go and arrest a car," said Detective Chuck Barham, a Sacramento investigator who has made a career out of probing fatal hit-and-run accidents. "If you don't have a witness to put somebody behind the wheel, then you've got a problem."

At a news conference on Monday, police asked the public for help in finding witnesses who saw or talked to Devon between the day of the accident and May 30, the day he apparently checked himself into Silver Cross Hospital.

Hospital officials have said that they reported to police that Devon was there after he made statements that led workers to believe he might have been be involved in the accident.

Silver Cross Vice President Cathie Biga said the hospital sought a number of legal opinions before deciding to report the information to the police.

Since making the initial report to police, hospital officials have said little else about Devon and have declined to discuss publicly what he told workers or for what he is being treated.

Devon's attorney, Tim Rathbun, of Joliet, also declined to comment about the case.

"The law enforcement authorities have the ability to arrest people, label them in any way they want, but we are not making a statement unless (Devon) is charged," said Rathbun.

Up to this point, investigators' two biggest strides in the case came nearly a week into their search.

Devon's 1987 Chevy Blazer was recovered from a North Side street in Chicago on Sunday, a day after police publicized the license number of the vehicle they said they believed was involved in the accident, based on vehicle fragments that were found at the accident scene.

Experienced defense attorneys say that despite public pressure to bring the case to trial quickly, time can be an ally of authorities in such cases.

"They don't lose anything by waiting until their case is solid," said Jeffrey Urdangen, of Chicago, a criminal defense lawyer for 16 years. "Right now they've got a circumstantial case. . . . The forensic evidence is going to be crucial."

Will County sheriff's police say they are banking on their go-slow strategy paying off in this case.

"I feel fairly confident that we will be able to conclude this," said Deputy Chief John Moss. As for when, he added, "I don't know."